2021 Reflections and 2022 Hopes

I had intended to get this out either on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day. Alas, time just keeps flying and here we are late on January 2nd. Better late than never, I hope.

The beginning of the year is always a good time to reflect on the previous year and use its lessons to inform how to proceed in the new year. Looking back on last year’s New Year’s post, I can say that I was partially successful in my goals. While I did stick mostly to the cameras that I listed, I didn’t actually purge much of the camera collection down.

Because of that, I think most of my 2022 photographic goals are going to be continuation and an extension of the things I learned in 2021.

To wit:

• I’m going to keep using the gear that I enjoy the most. For the most part, this will be the Z7 kit, the 8×10 kit and the Rolleiflex. I’ll probably throw in some additional stuff like the Coolpix A again but the majority of my work will be done with the gear listed above.
• It’s time to do the closet cleanout. We moved last year and it’s kind of scary to learn just how much stuff one owns. The camera collection contributed a particularly egregious number of boxes that didn’t need to be moved. I own a lot of cameras and a lot of camera related stuff. And there are huge chunks of that collection that don’t get used. In addition to the daily users listed above, I’m going to keep any cameras that I have been given as gifts and make a more concerted effort towards running film through them every now and again but the time has come to get rid of everything else.
• It’s time to do some updating on the galleries on my website. There will be some new galleries and some organization of older galleries. I’m also trying to decide what to do with my gallery, At the Zoo. After looking into the photographic policies of most of the zoos featured in that gallery, I’ve come to the conclusion that most of the work there can’t be sold or used in any kind of commercial manner. So I’m not sure if that particular gallery is going to stay around. That’s kind of making me a bit sad as I have a lot of work that I’m very proud of there. Maybe it will remain as a display only gallery with a special notice that most images in the gallery cannot be easily sold. Something to ponder.
• Put together a best of 2021 album for a blog post. Normally, I’m really excited to post my best-of album on Facebook on December 31st. There were two problems with that practice this year. One, I’m still on a hiatus from Facebook and not really missing it enough to go back, even for my annual photo post. And two, I’m kind of down on what I produced last year. It didn’t measure up to my usual standards and I really haven’t put too much effort into processing the images for a year end gallery. After taking another look, though, I decided that while it wasn’t my best year ever, there were still images I was happy with and proud of. It will be good to showcase them here, if not on FB. Originally, I had hoped to include them with this post but since I’m running behind, I decided it would be better to make it a separate post.

And that’s about it. I wish you all a very happy 2022 and hope that things like global pandemics finally start easing up and we can return to something seeming a bit more like normal. Best wishes to you all.